>A Gemini browser cabal where users have only a few choices and they are each controlled by corporations is unlikely.
This is the key point. It is like the idea that you don't need the fastest person to escape from a chasing bear, you only need to be faster than the slowest person.
A user on the conventional web, is the slowest person here. And thus the success of Gemini browser is dependent on the existence of the slower person, that is, a large number of users available for exploitation, on the regular web, so that the business will leave the Gemini users (and the likes) alone.
HN actually implements this idea by remaining minimal. But even this place got overrun by shills these days, which means such piecemeal strategies will not work. So it makes perfect sense to do all the way and use a different protocol altogether..
Many 'rules' (like one request -> one file) create limitations in Gemini that prevent it from being capable of web-style corporate behaviour, so even if business isn't content with regular web users and doesn't leave Gemini users alone, their options and the damage they can do is hampered (unless co-opting the entire movement).
I think the protocol being designed around ensuring it's difficult for sites to exploit visitors is a core goal that gets lost in the blinding document minimalism that's hits you when first encountering Gemini, OP didn't seem to get it.
> if business isn't content with regular web users and doesn't leave Gemini users alone, their options and the damage they can do is hampered
I am afraid you are limiting the scope of "exploitation", as enabled by Internet, to those things done by Ad companies like Google family.
But I was mostly referring to the use of Internet for all kinds of exploitation. Think of a seller on amazon putting fake reviews in the web, or deleting actual negative reviews. They won't bother with the Gemini users because there is enough victims on the real web. But if all users are using Gemini clients, then they will be writing fake reviews in Gemini domain.
That is smaller it remains, the less penetration by big business and selfish interests, and thus the more valuable it is, for the person who wants to find real, genuine information.
This also applies to real discussion. People are going to speak freely in Gemini, because there is less chance of encountering an army of shills.
Keep an eye on sites that sell gemini identities with "reputation". Once those start popping up, you ll know its time to move on to something different.
In any decent society, not really. This risk can be greatly mitigated by regulations, occasional independent review and transparency.
For example, I can rely that I won't get food poisoning in a restaurant. This is because we have rules of how to handle food (designed by expert consensus), and the restaurants are inspected from time to time if they follow these practices.
> major shift in the knowledge about risks of things like sugar, cigarettes, alcohol...
In each of these case, the medical and scientific community didn't have a vested interests in these entities. I mean, the medical community didn't come up with smoking or alcohol consumption...
Now imagine some entity or procedure that the medical/scientific community came up with and the big business found way to make huge money off of, such that there is a natural alignment of incentives for the scientific community and big business to keep this thing propped up. Such a thing, even if doing great harm, is sure to go on for a vastly longer period of time, if not perpetually....
And this is for something that the scientific community did not have vested interest in protecting. That is, the scientific community did not come up with smoking as some boon to humanity.
Now imagine if that was the case here; That the big business and the scientific community had a natural alignment in promoting and protecting a practice with huge commercial interests...
This is the key point. It is like the idea that you don't need the fastest person to escape from a chasing bear, you only need to be faster than the slowest person.
A user on the conventional web, is the slowest person here. And thus the success of Gemini browser is dependent on the existence of the slower person, that is, a large number of users available for exploitation, on the regular web, so that the business will leave the Gemini users (and the likes) alone.
HN actually implements this idea by remaining minimal. But even this place got overrun by shills these days, which means such piecemeal strategies will not work. So it makes perfect sense to do all the way and use a different protocol altogether..